


Merry Happy Everything

by liairene



Series: A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [29]
Category: Emma - Jane Austen, Persuasion - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Family Fluff, Modern Era, Small Towns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28319148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liairene/pseuds/liairene
Summary: Christmas Day is best spent with your family, so this story allows us a window into how each of our main Highbury families spent the holiday.
Relationships: Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth, Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood, Elinor Dashwood/Edward Ferrars, Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, George Knightley/Emma Woodhouse, Isabella Knightley/John Knightley
Series: A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/908481
Kudos: 13





	Merry Happy Everything

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fourth and final of my Christmas in Highbury stories. I hope you've enjoyed these stories!

“Okay,” Elsa called from the kitchen. “I think that we’re ready now.”

“Gina, come on!” her husband yelled up the stairs. “Dinner is ready.”

“Okay!” she yelled back down.

Will walked into the kitchen. “Gina is coming down.”

Elsa rolled her eyes. “Thanks, William.”

He grinned cheekily at her. “It’s my pleasure.”

“You know, I could have yelled up the stairs just like you.”

“But you didn’t do it. I did it.”

She smiled and shook her head. “That’s true.”

“What?” he said.

“What?”

“You’re thinking something. You have something more to say.”

Elsa sighed and shook her head. “It’s just…okay, it’s at times like this that I remember that you and Gina are ten years apart. You didn’t grow up with siblings close in age to bother and goad. What you just did, you a thirty-five-year-old man, that’s the kind of crap that Gwen and I did to each other all the time when we were kids. Hollering up the stairs instead of going upstairs to get a person? That was a Mae specialty.” She paused for a minute. “I just forget sometimes that you didn’t grow up with that kind of relationship with your sister.”

“I like to think that we’re trying to make up for that now as adults.”

“It’s just hard because we live on opposite sides of the country,” Gina said as she walked into the room.

“You could always move to Michigan,” her brother offered.

Gina shook her head. “I like San Francisco too much to leave. And I have a good job there.” Alex walked in the room just then. “And I have a boyfriend who I really care about there. But you could move to San Francisco!”

“I don’t think that my wife would like that very much.”

“I don’t think that it would work very well for our lives,” Elsa remarked.

“That’s too bad,” Gina replied. “I’d love to get to see my niece more often.”

* * *

“Mom, this is delicious,” Nora said after taking a bite of her mother’s seared scallops with risotto.

“Seriously,” James agreed. “I love it, Mom.”

“It’s pretty good considering that it’s fish,” Marianne said.

“Marianne, I have made fish for Christmas Eve dinner every year of your life.”

“And yet, I’ve never really liked fish.”

“It’s our family tradition,” her mother says with a final note in her voice.

“I like it,” Brandon Coronelle offered eagerly. “It’s really delicious, Mrs. D.”

Audrey Dashwood smiled brightly. “Thank you, dear. I’m so glad that you like it.”

“Mom’s always been a great cook,” Marianne said brightly. “Sadly, I didn’t inherit her cooking abilities.”

“You also didn’t inherit any interest in the kitchen,” James muttered.

Ed smacked him. “Hush yourself.”

“What? Nora is the one who learned all of my mom’s cooking secrets.”

“Fortunately, I don’t need to know how to cook because I have a boyfriend who loves to cook and is happy to cook for me any old time,” Marianne said with a bright smile. She rubbed Brandon’s arm. “He’s such a good cook. Why should I bother to learn how to cook?”

“Oh sweetie,” Brandon said. “I wouldn’t let you starve.”

“He really won’t,” Marianne told her family. “He puts meals in my freezer so that I don’t have to eat takeout on the days that I don’t see him.”

“That’s so sweet,” her mom enthused. “I wish that your father would have cooked for me.”

“Ed cooks for me,” Nora said. “We take turns cooking.”

“Ed can cook?” James inserted, clearly surprised.

“Newlyweds,” Marianne sighed. “Let’s see if they’re still doing this in a year.”

Nora shook her head. “What’s wrong, Mare? What’s wrong with Ed and me sharing cooking duties?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” she began. “It’s just that…Brandon cooks for me because he knows that I can’t cook. Why is Ed cooking for you?”

“Because I can,” Ed replied. “I can cook, and I like cooking. So, three nights a week, I cook for my wife. And three nights a week, she cooks for me.”

“And I cook for you because I like to, babe,” Brandon told Marianne.

She beamed. “And I love that you cook for me. It’s much better than frozen meals or takeout.”

“Oh, Marianne,” her boyfriend sighed. “You’re utterly delightful.”

Marianne shimmied her shoulder and smiled at her boyfriend. “Thank you.”

“So, what’s for dessert?” James inserted.

His mother glared at him. “James, you know family tradition-no dessert until after Mass.”

“But I want to know what it is!” he insisted.

“It’s wait and see, a Ferrars family classic,” Ed told him.

“There are Ferrars family classics? I thought that your family was awful?”

“My mom is a Darcy by birth. My dad was the Ferrars, and he was actually a pretty good cook. So was Will’s mom, actually, and she was also a Ferrars.”

James stared at his brother-in-law. “I’ve never thought about that before.”

“You know that my mom is Will’s dad’s sister, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So that makes her a Darcy,” Ed stated simply. “And Will’s mom was my dad’s sister, which made her a Ferrars.”

“How did your mom end up being awful if Will’s dad was great?”

Ed shook his head. “That’s a good question. My uncle George was great. My Darcy grandparents were lovely. My aunt Charlotte is lovely. But my mom is a piece of work, and I don’t know how it happened.”

“Will likes to blame it on the fact that she’s the middle child,” Nora said.

“Gina thinks that she got stuck in what she calls popular girl mode around tenth grade and never managed to break out of it. And losing my dad and then her brother and sister-in-law just exacerbated things.” Ed paused for a moment. “But anyway, my mom is what she is, and I don’t think that she’ll be changing at this point in her life.”

“Anyway,” Nora said. “You’ll just have to wait until after Mass to see what dessert is.”

James sighed and pouted. “But I want to know.”

“Too bad,” his oldest sister told him. “Get used to disappointment.”

“And Marianne, no peaking!” James persisted. “No peaking at the dessert while we’re at Mass.”

“I’m coming to Mass, bozo,” she replied. “I always go to Christmas Eve Mass with you guys. Brandon is even coming.”

“I don’t usually go to Mass, but I thought I’d come since I know that it’s important to your family.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” Audrey enthused.

Brandon wrapped an arm around his girlfriend, and she leaned against his chest. He smiled at her and told her, “I just want to make you happy.”

Marianne rubbed her nose against his and giggled. “I love that about you. I love that you just want all of us to be happy.”

* * *

The Dashwoods sat in the same pew that they always did. Behind them were Charles and Claire Knightley with their family. Charles was George’s uncle and Alice’s father. Alice’s youngest sister, Evelyn, had been in James’s class growing up, and she decided that right before the beginning of Mass was the perfect time to punch her friend in the shoulder. He flinched and turned around to see Josie sitting on Evelyn’s lap while Alice held Madeleine and Lottie was leaning against Chris Brandon of all people.

James turned around and elbowed Nora. “Why are Chris and his mom sitting with Alice and her family?”

Nora shrugged. “Who else would they sit with? They normally sit with Emma and her family. Alice’s family is pretty much the next best thing.”

James nodded. “That makes sense.”

“And you know that Lottie has been obsessed with him since Oliver died.”

“Be quiet,” Erik Wentworth hissed at them from his seat in front of them. “Some of us are trying to do church things here.”

“Don’t you mean pray?” James queried.

“No, I’m doing church things,” he replied. “Now be quiet.”

James didn’t say anything in reply but instead chose to stick his tongue out at Erik.

Nora shook her head. “Boys, we’re in church. Behave.”

James pouted, and Erik turned back around to face the front of the church.

* * *

“It’s a pretty church, I guess,” Henry Woodhouse commented as they approached the church that John and Teresa Knightley attended in Tempe. “But it’s not St. Martha’s. I’m going to miss St. Martha’s on Christmas. I love how they decorate the church. I love Fr. Mark’s homilies.”

“Dad, you always complain that they’re too long,” Emma inserted.

He waved a hand. “But they’re good. They’re shorter than his homily at your wedding. But he means well. And I like him. He’s a good egg. And the priest here might not be as good as him.”

“It will be fine, Dad,” Emma said. “It really will. It’ll be different from previous years but that doesn’t mean that it’ll be bad.”

“I don’t like change, Emma.”

She patted his shoulder. “It’s one year, Dad. It’s one Christmas. It’s just one Mass. Just try it.”

He sighed. “Fine, I guess.”

Emma turned to look at her husband. George shrugged, and she just rolled her eyes back.

* * *

When they walked out of church an hour and a half later, Henry was enthusing over how much he’d enjoyed the Mass. “The homily was much shorter. And it was so much warmer in the church. I really liked it.”

“Oh good,” Jack Knightley muttered. “I was afraid that you wouldn’t and we’d have to listen to you whine about it all night.”

George smacked his brother. “Behave.”

“What did you say?” Henry queried turning to look at his sons-in-law.

“Nothing,” Jack replied innocently.

“He was talking to me,” George added. “Now let’s go. We have children who need to go to bed and adults who need to watch _The Muppet Christmas Carol._ ”

* * *

Back at the Dashwood house, Ed unveiled dessert. He had made a lemon meringue pie with basil in both the crust and the curd. “Elsa definitely helped with this,” he told his wife. “But this was my grandmother Charlotte’s specialty. She made it every Christmas Eve. I had to make it.”

“I can’t wait to try it,” Audrey commented as he set it on the table. “Did you really make your own meringue?”

“From scratch,” he replied.

“I’m so impressed,” she told him. “I have never made a meringue.”

“I had Elsa teach me. She’s really good at meringue.”

“How hard is it?” Brandon asked.

“I mean,” Marianne said. “I know that Elsa does it all of the time.”

“Just because Elsa does something all of the time,” Nora began. “That doesn’t mean that it’s easy. It just means that she does it all of the time.”

“I can think of more than a few things that she does all of the time that aren’t easy,” Ed added.

“But they’re easy for her,” Marianne protested.

“That doesn’t make it easy for me,” Ed replied. “Beating egg whites to stiff peaks is hard. Heck, separating egg yolks from egg whites? That was insane.”

“You had to separate eggs?” Marianne asked. “But how?”

“Very carefully,” her brother-in-law told her as he began to slice the pie.

“You have to have multiple bowls and a lot of patience,” James said. “Having Elsa’s meringue-making playlist is also helpful.”

“She has a meringue-making playlist?” Brandon said. “Why?”

“Elsa has playlists for everything,” James replied. “She likes to have the perfect motivation for the moment.”

“Is she crazy?”

“Debatable,” Ed said flatly. “And I’m allowed to say that. She married my cousin.”

“She’s Elsa,” James said.

“So yes?”

Nora shrugged. “She likes music. It makes her happy. And when she’s baking, it can really help motivate her.”

Brandon looked at her. “I didn’t think that you needed to be motivated to bake. I thought it was just a thing that people did.”

“When you do it for a living every day, I think that you do need motivation.”

“Do you need motivation to do your job?”

“Sometimes.”

“But you’re a children’s librarian. You just read to kids.”

She sighed. “That’s just one part of my job. And there are days when I don’t want to do that.”

“Why? It’s easy.”

Audrey raised a hand. “That’s enough. This conversation isn’t going anywhere. Let’s talk about something else. Ed, are you going to call your family at all tomorrow?”

“Nope,” he replied flatly.

“But won’t your mother miss you?”

Ed looked at his mother-in-law. “I haven’t been home for Christmas since 2009. I don’t think that my mother will even notice that I’m not there.”

“That’s so sad,” Marianne replied. “How do you bear it?”

“Well, I’ll see Will and Gina tomorrow evening, and we’ll call our Ferrars grandparents at some point.”

“Oh that’ll be lovely. You’ll have to tell your grandmother that you made us her pie.”

He smiled. “I will. She’ll love that.”

* * *

“So, what time should we come over tomorrow morning?” Edward Wentworth asked his brother after Mass.

“We were thinking breakfast around eight, if you like that,” Erik replied.

“I think that will work for the kids. Jess, do you agree?”

Jessica Wentworth nodded. “That should be great.”

“Soph, does breakfast at Erik and Annie’s at eight work for you?” Edward asked his older sister.

The oldest of the Wentworth siblings looked at her two younger brothers and then at her husband. “It should. I can’t think of any reason why it won’t.”

“Perfect,” Erik said. “We’ll see you at eight o’clock for coffee and cinnamon rolls.”

His sister smiled. “That sounds amazing.”

“Fresh coffee and Annie-made cinnamon rolls?” his brother added. “We’ll be there.”

“I can’t wait.”

* * *

The next morning, Ed and Nora slept in before lazily going to her mother’s house around noon for Christmas lunch. “We won’t be able to do this next year,” he told her with a smile.

“No, but it’ll be totally worth it,” she replied.

* * *

Will and Elsa (and Clara, Gina, and Alex) went to Mass at ten and then bundled off to a long but lovely day surrounded by the Bennet family.

“Have Charlie and Gwen set a date yet?” Gina asked as they pulled up at the Bennet house.

Elsa laughed. “It’ll take a miracle for those to set a date.”

“Elsa’s older sister got engaged about a month or so after Elsa and Will did, and they’ve shown zero desire to move past being engaged and into being married,” Gina told her boyfriend.

“How long ago was that?”

“You guys have been married for two years, right?” Gina asked.

Elsa nodded. “Yeah, so they’ll have been engaged for three years come Valentine’s Day.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah,” Elsa agreed. “But I try to just let my sister live her life and do her thing. It’s my mom who cannot handle this.”

“There are a great many things that the Great Mary Frances cannot handle,” Gina commented.

“But I’d rather have her as my parent than Henry Woodhouse,” Will replied.

Elsa sighed. “Oh lord, I hope that George and Emma are holding up.”

* * *

George and Emma were at his parents’ house with all of their family. Jack and Izzy’s children were opening presents and playing with new toys while Henry fussed about the potential dangers hidden inside innocent-looking toys and Jack puzzled how to transport the toys back to Michigan.

“Does every family event have to devolve into stress and worrying?” George asked his wife.

“Look at your brother. Look at my dad. Then ask me that again.”

He sighed. “I know. It’s just that it’s Christmas. Can’t we just enjoy Christmas and stop worrying about killing ourselves with toys or how we’re going to get the toys home?”

“Jack has a real concern,” Emma offered gently.

“But he’s letting it ruin Christmas.”

“I hate to say this, but I think that my sister managed to marry a man just like her father.”

George sighed. “I think that you’re right.”

“I like being right,” she said brightly.

“I know,” he told her. “Trust me, Em. Everyone knows that.”

* * *

“Annie,” Sophie Croft sighed. “These cinnamon rolls are amazing. I need your recipe.”

“Seriously,” Jessie Wentworth agreed. “How do you get them so perfect?”

“Time, practice, a few secret ingredients,” Annie replied.

“They’re amazing.”

“It’s the Knit Wit’s secret recipe,” she said calmly before taking a sip of coffee.

“But we’re family,” Jessie persisted. “You can share with us, right?”

“It’s not my family’s recipe,’ Annie replied.

Sophie leaned forward. “Surely Elsa would let you share.”

“It’s Elsa’s mom’s family recipe. The Great Mary Frances is pretty protective of her recipes.”

“The Great Mary Frances?” Sophie repeated. “Who the heck is the Great Mary Frances?”

“Elsa’s mom,” Annie said. “It’s what Elsa and her sisters call their mom. It’s a long and very weird story.”

“It sounds like an interesting story,” Sophie pressed.

“It is an interesting story, but it’s long. And we’ve got kids here who I’m pretty sure want open presents.”

“Presents?” Nolan, Jessie’s six-year-old, repeated.

Annie shrugged. “I thought that I heard that there might be presents for someone somewhere in this apartment.”

“Let’s open presents!” Nolan screamed.

“I can’t wait until your kids are running around like that,” Jessie commented turning to Annie.

“If that day ever comes,” Annie sighed sadly. “It isn’t looking very likely these days, so I have to content myself with being a doting aunt and loving godmother.”

Jessie patted Annie’s arm awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I’m sure that it will happen soon. I know it will. How could it not?”

Annie smiled stiffly, her eyes seeking out her husband across the room. She knew that her sister-in-law meant well, but cheerful optimism did little only three weeks after her second miscarriage.

* * *

Elsa’s phone buzzed in her sweater pocket. She pulled it out to see a text from Annie. “If Jessie doesn’t stop offering me positive vibes and thoughts for having a successful pregnancy soon, I’m going to hurt someone.”

Elsa quickly replied, “I’m so sorry. Anything that I can do practically to help?”

“Remind me that I don’t want to go to jail.”

“If you went to jail, you couldn’t work with me every day.”

“Oh, there’s a thought. Hmmm….”

“Hey, now!” Elsa replied.

“Just kidding, I’d miss Erik too much if I went to jail.”

“I’m really sorry that you’re dealing with this. Please let me know if I can do anything.”

“Thanks.”

Elsa sent another message after a pause of a few minutes. “I don’t know if this helps but the GMF has managed to corner about a wedding date. It’s hilarious.”

“I bet.”

“He keeps trying to tell her that they’re just enjoying being engaged and settling on a wedding date is more stress than they want at this point in their lives.”

Annie had to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud when she read that message. “Oh my gosh, I would love to see video footage of that.”

“Chris says that he’s got your back.”

“You guys are the best.”

* * *

Dinner at the Dashwood house always began promptly at two o’clock. Brandon Coronelle stood by the wall with his arm around Marianne as Nora and her mom put the dishes on the table. There was a large turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, salad, rolls, and a rice casserole.

“What’s that?” Brandon asked his girlfriend.

“Mom’s famous rice casserole,” Marianne replied brightly. “It’s a Dashwood family establishment.”

“Rice casserole?” he repeated. “I might have to pass on that.”

“Why?” 

James looked at his sister’s boyfriend. “It’s seriously good.”

“I don’t trust rice.”

Ed looked at Brandon. “You don’t trust rice. Whyever not? It’s like a universal food. Everybody eats rice.”

“Exactly, it’s like not native to any country or anything. It’s just rice and everyone eats rice, which is weird.”

“How is that weird?” James asked.

Brandon shrugged. “Like, where does rice come from? I don’t trust any food that grows pretty much anywhere.”

“Do you eat potatoes?” Nora asked.

“They don’t grow just anywhere. They’re not as weird as rice.”

Marianne stared at her boyfriend. “Rice isn’t weird. Mom’s rice casserole is delicious.”

“I’m pretty sure that rice was brought to earth by aliens and we shouldn’t eat it. I don’t think that it’s natural for a crop to grow just anywhere in the world.”

“Wow,” Marianne said.

“Well, it’s your loss,” James said. “And that means that there’s more rice for me.”

Ed laughed. “And whatever you don’t eat will go to the Darcy party tomorrow.”

“The Darcy party?” Marianne said. “Isn’t that on New Year’s Day?”

“They’re doing that one too,” Nora began. “But Will and Elsa are covering the Knightley Day after Christmas party this year.”

“Ah,” Marianne nodded. “That’s cool of them.”

“Yeah, but you know them. They love hosting people.”

“Her more than him.”

“She’s more outgoing than him, sure,” Ed commented. “But he enjoys parties too.”

* * *

“Do you think that he had a good Christmas?” George asked Emma as they put Theo to bed that night.

“He’s a baby, George. He wouldn’t know if it was Christmas or the Fourth of July.”

“Excuse you,” her husband retorted. “The Fourth of July is my birthday, and I expect my son to acknowledge my birthday.”

“Well, he’ll be nine months old by then,” Emma said. “I think that he’ll be more able to enjoy your birthday. But to answer your question, I think that he enjoyed this Christmas as much as any two-month-old can.”

* * *

“Did Clara enjoy Christmas?” Nora asked as she and Ed entered the Darcy house that evening.

“She had a lot of fun,” Elsa said.

“She was definitely more aware of everything than she was last year,” Gina added.

Elsa nodded. “She really liked the lights and the boxes. I don’t think that she cared very much about what was in the boxes, but she really liked unwrapping presents.”

“Good,” Ed said. “We’re going to bring her our gifts tomorrow.”

“Perfect,” Elsa replied. “Will is upstairs putting her to bed now.”

“Based on what I heard when I was up there,” Alex said as he came into the living room. “It might be a while before he’s done. She seemed pretty amped up.”

“She didn’t nap well at my parents’ house, and it’s been exciting day for her.”

“I get that,” Ed said.

“Can I get anyone anything while we wait for my husband?” Elsa offered.

“Is there any more of that beer I had last night?” Alex queried.

“I think so, yeah.”

“What beer is it?”

“Chris’s Christmas porter,” Elsa said.

Ed gasped. “Oh man, that stuff is seriously good.”

“I can get you both a bottle if you want.”

“Absolutely,” Ed said.

Alex nodded. “Please!”

“Can I get anyone else anything? Nora?”

“I’d take water.”

“Sparkling or still?”

“Do you have any flavored sparkling water?”

“Cranberry,” Elsa replied.

“I’ll take that.”

“Bean, Chris, anything for either of you?”

“I’ll take a beer too,” Chris said.

“Get me whatever you’re having,” Gina replied.

“I’m having red wine.”

“Perfect,” Gina replied.

After Elsa left the room, Ed turned to his cousin’s boyfriend. “So, Alex, you’re a craft beer man?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“He likes dark beers,” Chris added.

“I knew that we were going to be friends,” Ed said.

“No, you didn’t,” Nora muttered.

“And his favorite way to de-stress is watching Mel Brooks movies,” Gina said.

Ed’s eyes lit up. “Sir, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Welcome to the family.”

Gina and Nora locked eyes and both burst out laughing.

* * *

The End...for now!


End file.
